Questão 26

Read the story below, which is said to be true, and answer the question as follows.

Now thankfully this story did not result in death but goes to show you how sloppy handwriting can be a major problem in healthcare.

A woman in Arkansas brought her baby in to see the doctor, and he determined right away the baby had an earache. He wrote a prescription for eardrops. In the directions he wrote, “Put two drops in R ear every four hours” where "R" was the abbreviation for "right¨". He also wrote a circle around the "R". Several days passed, and the woman returned with her baby, complaining that the baby still had an earache, and his little behind was getting really greasy with all those drops of oil. The doctor looked at the bottle of eardrops and sure enough, the pharmacist had typed the following instructions on the label: “Put two drops in Rear every four hours.”

(Source: Adapted from 10 Funny Healthcare Doctor Stories (For your Laughing Pleasure) (getreferralmd.com – retrieved on September 4th, 2023)

Why didn't the baby get the ear pain relieved after using the prescribed eardrops for several days?